It does no disservice to our 5-day loan of a Mitsubishi i-MiEV that the car arrived in a mini-transporter. True, Mitsubishi's national headquarters are in Cypress, by Google Maps only 18.8 miles away. But the company wanted us to get the car with a full tank, and the i-MiEV's "fuel tank" is a lithium-ion battery pack nestled beneath its passenger compartment.

We've had a good amount of stick time with this tidy little city EV, dating back to July 2008 when I got to fool with one in Cypress on its way east to the New York Auto Show. We got numbers on a later version as part of our March 2009 "Eclectic Electrics" extravaganza: 0 to 60 mph in 11.9 seconds; the quarter mile in 18.7 sec at 73.7 mph; 59.7 mph through our slalom and 0.75g around our skidpad (sorry, Mitsubishi, about those front tires...). Most recently, and with rather more discretion, I drove an i-MiEV the 90 miles from San Francisco to Sacramento, albeit profiting from one of Eaton Power's 30-minute quick charges at Vacaville in between.

This time around, Mitsubishi is doing nothing more elaborate than dropping off the car, showing us how to plug it in, and saying "See you Friday."

More details to follow during the week, but as background: The i-MiEV is the electric vehicle version of Mitsubishi's i, its entry in Japan's hotly contested kei (or minicar) market. The base gasoline version has a 659-cc 12-valve dohc 3-cylinder, and there's even an intercooled turbo all-wheel-drive variant.

What's amazing about any kei car is its immensely efficient packaging. As I never tire of telling you, I'm bigger than the average bear—yet I am decidedly less than a circus act driving the i-MiEV. In fact, I've even tried the back seat (though, I confess, I wouldn't want to travel several hours back there).

Indeed, no one travels several hours anywhere in an i-MiEV. Range in our kind of driving is conservatively rated at 50 to 80 miles; this, compared with its 160 km (almost 100 miles) of home-market range based on that country's easy-peasy city cycle.

We'll find out how the i-MiEV fares in our hands—and under our right foot—during the next week. Tonight, wife Dottie and I are meeting friends for dinner. Their cars are a Toyota Prius and, lately, a Smart Cabriolet (that replaced a Porsche Boxster and, before that, a Miata).

I'll tell you tomorrow what they think of the i-MiEV. And, for that matter, what we think of it. (First claim: I think this will be my first EV night drive...)